CRPF foils attack bid, kills 4 ultras

Fake encounter, say locals

Four militants were killed after CRPF troopers repelled a fidayeen (suicide) attack on their camp in Sumbal area of north Kashmir’s Bandipora district during the early hours of Monday.

Sources said the heavily armed militants, believed to be Pakistanis, tried to enter the camp of 45 Battalion around 4.10 am by lobbying grenades and opening fire.

“The alert sentries retaliated, triggering a brief gunfight in which all the four fidayeen were killed,” a source said.

The identity of the slain militants was yet to be ascertained. Jammu and Kashmir police chief Shesh Pal Vaid tweeted a picture of four AK-47 rifles and other ammunition, which he said, were recovered from the slain militants.

A senior police officer told DH that the fidayeen were planning an Uri-style attack and carrying inflammable
material, including petrol bombs.  “Preliminary investigation revealed that the fidayeen had planned to get inside the camp and take control of a vantage point to prolong the encounter and burn down the place,” the officer said.

However, locals claimed that the unidentified youth were killed in a fake encounter. “One of the slain youths was wearing slippers. Have you ever seen a militant wearing slippers while on a fidayeen mission? Their bodies were mutilated by the troops,” a local told DH over phone.

The killings led to intense clashes between civilians and security forces, in which several protesters were injured.
In a similar attack on September 18 last year, 18 troopers were killed and 18 injured as a group of fidayeen had stormed a strategic military base in north Kashmir’s Uri. On December 5, 2014, six fidayeen militants had carried out a similar attack in Baramulla.

While the militants were killed, eight soldiers and several policemen had also lost their lives. The latest attack comes two days after militants ambushed an army convoy on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district.

Two soldiers were killed and four others were wounded.
DH News Service